Nitrox Fills in Key Largo area

[Capt Gary]

Well I'll just jump in and agree with the last few post. Things are just more expensive here than on the main land. When we first moved here 4 years ago we had sticker shock as we were looking to buy a house. The agent showed us a 3/2 trailer on the water....asking price was $375K. Today that same trailer goes for $875K. Wish I would have bought that one, but we didn't and still don't own anything here. We can't afford it so we have been renting since we got here.

You won't get rich in the dive business in the Keys. It's a job you have to love, which the Admiral and I do.

Good Diving,

 

[dldiver]

Ah ha, I finally found my thread! Been wondering where this ended up

The info is great so far! It looks like pre-mix does exist more abundantly in Key Largo.

Does anyone know if Cristal Clear does nitrox fills at any of their locations?

 

[deepstops]

Does anyone know if Cristal Clear does nitrox fills at any of their locations?

Cristal Clear does nitrox (PP I'm pretty sure) at both the Tavernier and Key Largo locations.

That being said, I typically bring all my gas with me. If I was getting fills down there, I'd probably use Ocean Divers or Slate's Atlantis Dive Center since they have DNAx premix.

 

[Timbur]

Silent World has Nitrox??? Is this something new? Its been a while since I was there, but the last I visited, they did not have Nitrox in any form, and usually they asked that you leave tanks for air. Great people and shop, but I didnt know they had Nitrox? I usually get premix at Quiessence. I never had much luck finding custom blends in the keys.

 

[Chris Brown Tech]

Silent World has Nitrox??? Is this something new? Its been a while since I was there, but the last I visited, they did not have Nitrox in any form, and usually they asked that you leave tanks for air. Great people and shop, but I didnt know they had Nitrox? I usually get premix at Quiessence. I never had much luck finding custom blends in the keys.

Hi, yes I do partial pressure blending for any custom blend of nitrox. A 32% fill AL80 is $8 if you are on our boat, or $12 in your own tank. As we are a tech dive center, I always have helium and do trimix fills and stage bottle fills with whatever you need. Check out our website for details. I also rent doubles and stages. (Halcyon valves / manifolds & Highland Mill bands)

Cheers

 

[CBulla]

I really respect the hoooha out of yawl who do business in the Keys... tell ya what though, if I didn't bring my own tanks and share expenses with folks, I couldn't afford to come down and dive.. it costs as much 2/3's of the cost of the dive just to fill a few tanks. Do that with my wife and we're talking almost a $340+ day if we want to do two trips each.

 

[netmage]

To my knowledge, Ocean Divers is the only place that banks, the target is 32%, but it's usually a tad off and short out of their membrane. Not to mention their horrendous LP steels - makes me want to pack a pit guage next time.

Beware - this is the keys. You've heard all the horror stories about LDS's and the strange rules they seem to make up back in the midwest - you'll run into them twice as often in the Keys due to the very high vacation diver ratio.... I've had friends turned away from Ocean Divers due to the insistance of Oxygen Cleaning tanks for pre-mix nitrox... ***!!?!?!!? Let me clean that valve - it's going to see 32% Nitrox.... Or another drops his doubles of for a top-off and the guys says he can't fill them because they lack the huge salt trap green and yellow Nitrox band stickers... He neglected to even read the massive orange bands reading "Trimix - Mixture other than AIR" on them which addresses the primary argument for the bands to begin with... But they'd be happy to sell you some new green and yellow ones...

Conch & Capt. Gary have always treated us SB folks well, and I've heard lots of good things lately about Silent World

 

[MsParamedic]

CBulla....

Call it hooha or whatever you wish. That is why we at Silent World have various packages to try to make it affordable. A price for the diver who brings ALL his/her own equipment, a package for the diver needing only tanks and weights and one for the diver that needs to rent ALL their equipment.

I can't speak for the shop owners, since I'm an instructor/employee---but please remember--this is how we make our living. 99% of the shops in the Keys are NOT owned by large corporations like Cay Clubs--they are owned by individuals passionate about diving. Whle they would like to charge the customers the same price they are paying for the supplies or cut the mark-up to only a few pennies--------we have to pay our bills too ( and I like to take a dive vacation every once awhile too!).

 

[CBulla]

CBulla....
Call it hooha or whatever you wish.

Wow.. got defensive and completely misread that... I was saying you all put up with a lot of crap!

~~
I can't speak for the shop owners, since I'm an instructor/employee---but please remember--this is how we make our living. 99% of the shops in the Keys are NOT owned by large corporations like Cay Clubs--they are owned by individuals passionate about diving. Whle they would like to charge the customers the same price they are paying for the supplies or cut the mark-up to only a few pennies--------we have to pay our bills too ( and I like to take a dive vacation every once awhile too!).

Something that I was thinking about last night after I closed shop and went to sleep here - do all the shops, say in the upper keys, rely upon their own resources and buy stuff once as they need it or do they work together and buy O₂ or other stuff in bulk (just an example) so the truck that drives the bank tanks down only makes 1 trip in a week. I know, I know.. everyone is doing their own thing, but there are benefits to creating some things together as a group vs. a bunch of chickens in the barn yard with 1 rooster serving at his own whim.

I mean honestly, Sanibel which is across the bridge from where I live is like Key Largo with prices. I live in a tourst area and understand. I also would rather drive 20 miles to Homestead or what not than pay 3x the fill price. For what I'd blow in a day to dive Key Largo with my wife, I'd spend in a week diving Lauderdale by the Sea. KL diving is fun and honestly, the only real affordable way for me to do it without blowing what we have saved is to actually bring our own boat down.

I guess I'm jaded since I live in another area thats touristy and have seen prices of housing, etc., go up to crazy stupid prices while pay didn't change. And for some dumb reason our gas is higher than yours is down there.

 

[MsParamedic]

My apology for mis-reading your post and getting on the ole defensive fence post.......Please accept my apology! !